Getting Started with eBay

Getting Started with eBay is as easy as completing these simple steps. You will want to reference each step in this guide while you are going through your Launch Process.

Launch Options

When setting up eBay Custom with ChannelAdvisor you have three options:

Self-Guided Launch – Completed by yourself using the information found in the steps of this Getting Started Guide.

eBay Launch Assistance Service – A paid service offered by ChannelAdvisor that allows for you to stay in contact via email with and get a limited number of telephone trainings from a dedicated ChannelAdvisor Implementation Specialist to help you get setup on eBay quicker and easier. See Sales for more information about this service.

eBay Launch Plus Service – A paid service offered by ChannelAdvisor that allows for you to stay in contact via email with and get a limited number of telephone trainings from a dedicated ChannelAdvisor Implementation Specialist, but also includes additional setup elements and assistance. See Sales for more information about this service. For timelines and full launch option details, click here . If you have not purchased launch assistance and would like to do so, contact Sales .

Complete Prerequisites

Before beginning the launch process with any of the launch service options, you will need to complete the following steps:

Create Your eBay Seller Account – To begin the process of selling on the eBay Marketplace you must have or create an eBay Seller Account. Visit the eBay seller site for the appropriate locales listed below today to create your account.

Configure Inventory

Before listing your products on the eBay marketplace, it is important to be aware of eBay's listing requirements. eBay should provide you with this information upon acceptance into the Partner program.

Determine Your eBay Categories

It will be important to have a clear understanding of what eBay categories you plan on listing to and also to be aware of the various data requirements to list in those categories. It is also important to take the time to make sure that you are selecting the most applicable category for each of your products to list to. Each eBay category is assigned a category ID. This number will be needed when posting your items to eBay in order to be listed in the correct category. There are several ways to obtain this information.

eBay Item Specifics

eBay allows you to send additional pieces of information about the products listed on the site that are referred to as eBay Item Specifics . These additional fields of data are used by the eBay system to identify characteristics about specific items and allow potential buyers to filter based on that data using the search results. Some item specifics are required to list in certain categories, so when you are creating your inventory you will want to be sure that you are including at the very least the data points that are required by eBay. You will also want to consider sending as many item specifics as possible since these are promoted to the shoppers in the search results and the individual item pages and will ultimately help you sell your products.

Adding Item Specifics to Inventory – If you do not currently have data for certain items specifics you may need to add a new attribute to your inventory and populate that attribute with the values that eBay accepts

Using Business Rules and Lookup Lists to manipulate inventory – If you already have a similar data point in your inventory but your values do not match the eBay values, you can utilize a business rule or a lookup list to transform your value to match a eBay Clothing Type. View the Business Rules and Lookup Lists pages for details.

Using Automatic Matching for eBay Item Specifics – Automatic matching allows the seller to send Item specific information for their listings without having to create a posting template for each category they plan to list to. If you are listing in multiple eBay categories you should consider utilizing this setting in ChannelAdvisor

Product Variations

Variation listings allow you to provide all of the similar items in a single eBay Fixed Price listing to make it easier for the buyer to find the size, color, or other option that they would like to purchase. Without variation listings, each of the options must be submitted independently, creating a much more complicated landscape for the buyer to navigate when searching for an item. With variation listings, the buyer finds the product and then has the complete selection of all available options for that item. They can select the item directly instead of requiring additional searches and navigation to find the specific item they desire.

Configure Marketplace Settings

The eBay setup guide will walk you through the initial setup process within the ChannelAdvisor application and will set the foundation for your account integration with eBay. Begin by navigating to your Marketplaces > eBay > Settings view and completing the steps of the guide.

List Your Products

In order to list to the eBay Marketplace you must create ads for each of your products. Ads consist of multiple components and can be created in several ways.

Create Your Posting Template

Posting templates contain all the information required to post a listing to eBay. They contain information about pricing, payment methods, shipping, and other eBay features. There are numerous preloaded posting templates in your account. These represent the most commonly used selling strategies on eBay. Before using any of these templates, please take the time to review the template to be sure it meets your sales strategy. If listing in many eBay categories you will want to consider utilizing the eBay Automatic Matching functionality that will allow you to utilize one general posting template for all categories.

Please note: The posting template is an important part in the configuration of your eBay Checkout settings. Please reference the eBay Checkout Configuration page for additional information on how to configure your posting templates for eBay Checkout.

Create Your Description Template

Description Templates are used to represent the look and feel of your products on the marketplace. Essentially, description templates contain the HTML for your ads with special template tags. By utilizing description template tags, you can easily list hundreds or thousands of different items with the same description template. With description templates, ChannelAdvisor complete allows you to easily keep a consistent appearance to all of your listings. This will save you time and help you establish a brand and identity in the marketplace.

Select Your Schedule

Schedules can help you increase sales while saving significant time. Schedules allow you to determine when, how often, and how many items are posted to eBay at a give time. When you create a schedule in the application, you are creating a schedule that can be used an unlimited number of times for an unlimited number of items and not just determining when a single item will post. You can be flexible in the configured quantity, as the schedule will never post more quantity than you have available at the time of the listing – it will submit the maximum quantity in the inventory item subject to the constraints of your schedule.

Create Your Ads

Once you have created all of the components that make up an eBay add including the Posting Template, Description Template, and the Schedule, you can move forward and begin creating the ads that will be listed on the eBay Marketplace. You can create your ads one-by-one via the user interface or you can create your ads in bulk via spreadsheet.

Manage Your Listings

Once you have created your eBay ads, you should begin seeing activity almost immediately. You may notice that some of your products have not listed properly or have not listed at all. It will be crucial that you consistently manage your eBay account to monitor these issues.

eBay Product Dashboard

ChannelAdvisor provides you with a dashboard that assists you with the management of your eBay ads. eBay 360 is a comprehensive feature that goes beyond the traditional integration of product data and gives retailers the freedom to shift their attention from e-commerce mechanics to e-commerce strategy. eBay 360 is fully compatible with all supported eBay sites and countries. You can access this page via the menu from Marketplaces > eBay > Products > Overview.

eBay Ad Management

There are several views and actions in ChannelAdvisor that will allow you to effectively manage your eBay ads according to your business practices and strategies. You will want to be familiar with all of these features in your account.

Fulfilling/Cancelling Orders

Sales are handled through the integrated shopping cart of each Marketplace. Order information details are then imported to ChannelAdvisor in the All Sales view where you can then manage your fulfillment process, update shipping and tracking information and process any refunds or cancellations.

Importing Orders

From your All Sales view you can easily manage the fulfillment process for all orders imported from the marketplace. Whether you use ChannelAdvisor or a third party fulfillment system to manage your orders, ChannelAdvisor offers the tools to optimize your fulfillment strategy.

After a purchase has been completed, the ChannelAdvisor Complete software will automatically import all the relevant order details needed for fulfillment. See the Processing and Communication Frequency page for details on how long after a purchase orders are imported. For information about Order IDs and expected ID formats, please review the Order Import Processing section on the eBay Settings SSC page.

Once imported, your orders will appear in the Sales > Orders/Transactions > All Orders view alongside all of your other orders.

Update Shipping and Tracking

After fulfillment is complete, your next step is to update the ChannelAdvisor Complete software with shipping and tracking information. This step is what will update the order status to shipped and notify the customer that the item has been fulfilled. Once processed, eBay will be automatically updated with the fulfillment information . There are 4 primary methods to complete this step.

Refunding Orders

Currently, only refunds for payments using the PayPal payment method are supported in ChannelAdvisor which is why as a best practice ChannelAdvisor only recommends accepting PayPal payments. If you are also accepting Integrated Merchant Credit Card payments or Offline Manual Payments those refunds will have to be processed manually outside of ChannelAdvisor. Below are instructions to process your eBay refunds.

Getting Started with eBay is as easy as completing these simple steps. You will want to reference each step in this guide while you are going through your Launch Process.

Launch Options

When setting up eBay Custom with ChannelAdvisor you have three options:

Self-Guided Launch – Completed by yourself using the information found in the steps of this Getting Started Guide.

eBay Launch Assistance Service – A paid service offered by ChannelAdvisor that allows for you to stay in contact via email with and get a limited number of telephone trainings from a dedicated ChannelAdvisor Implementation Specialist to help you get setup on eBay quicker and easier. See Sales for more information about this service.

eBay Launch Plus Service – A paid service offered by ChannelAdvisor that allows for you to stay in contact via email with and get a limited number of telephone trainings from a dedicated ChannelAdvisor Implementation Specialist, but also includes additional setup elements and assistance. See Sales for more information about this service. For timelines and full launch option details, click here . If you have not purchased launch assistance and would like to do so, contact Sales .

Complete Prerequisites

Before beginning the launch process with any of the launch service options, you will need to complete the following steps:

Create Your eBay Seller Account – To begin the process of selling on the eBay Marketplace you must have or create an eBay Seller Account. Visit the eBay seller site for the appropriate locales listed below today to create your account.

Configure Inventory

Before listing your products on the eBay marketplace, it is important to be aware of eBay's listing requirements. eBay should provide you with this information upon acceptance into the Partner program.

Determine Your eBay Categories

It will be important to have a clear understanding of what eBay categories you plan on listing to and also to be aware of the various data requirements to list in those categories. It is also important to take the time to make sure that you are selecting the most applicable category for each of your products to list to. Each eBay category is assigned a category ID. This number will be needed when posting your items to eBay in order to be listed in the correct category. There are several ways to obtain this information.

eBay Item Specifics

eBay allows you to send additional pieces of information about the products listed on the site that are referred to as eBay Item Specifics . These additional fields of data are used by the eBay system to identify characteristics about specific items and allow potential buyers to filter based on that data using the search results. Some item specifics are required to list in certain categories, so when you are creating your inventory you will want to be sure that you are including at the very least the data points that are required by eBay. You will also want to consider sending as many item specifics as possible since these are promoted to the shoppers in the search results and the individual item pages and will ultimately help you sell your products.

Adding Item Specifics to Inventory – If you do not currently have data for certain items specifics you may need to add a new attribute to your inventory and populate that attribute with the values that eBay accepts

Using Business Rules and Lookup Lists to manipulate inventory – If you already have a similar data point in your inventory but your values do not match the eBay values, you can utilize a business rule or a lookup list to transform your value to match a eBay Clothing Type. View the Business Rules and Lookup Lists pages for details.

Using Automatic Matching for eBay Item Specifics – Automatic matching allows the seller to send Item specific information for their listings without having to create a posting template for each category they plan to list to. If you are listing in multiple eBay categories you should consider utilizing this setting in ChannelAdvisor

Product Variations

Variation listings allow you to provide all of the similar items in a single eBay Fixed Price listing to make it easier for the buyer to find the size, color, or other option that they would like to purchase. Without variation listings, each of the options must be submitted independently, creating a much more complicated landscape for the buyer to navigate when searching for an item. With variation listings, the buyer finds the product and then has the complete selection of all available options for that item. They can select the item directly instead of requiring additional searches and navigation to find the specific item they desire.

Configure Marketplace Settings

The eBay setup guide will walk you through the initial setup process within the ChannelAdvisor application and will set the foundation for your account integration with eBay. Begin by navigating to your Marketplaces > eBay > Settings view and completing the steps of the guide.

List Your Products

In order to list to the eBay Marketplace you must create ads for each of your products. Ads consist of multiple components and can be created in several ways.

Create Your Posting Template

Posting templates contain all the information required to post a listing to eBay. They contain information about pricing, payment methods, shipping, and other eBay features. There are numerous preloaded posting templates in your account. These represent the most commonly used selling strategies on eBay. Before using any of these templates, please take the time to review the template to be sure it meets your sales strategy. If listing in many eBay categories you will want to consider utilizing the eBay Automatic Matching functionality that will allow you to utilize one general posting template for all categories.

Please note: The posting template is an important part in the configuration of your eBay Checkout settings. Please reference the eBay Checkout Configuration page for additional information on how to configure your posting templates for eBay Checkout.

Create Your Description Template

Description Templates are used to represent the look and feel of your products on the marketplace. Essentially, description templates contain the HTML for your ads with special template tags. By utilizing description template tags, you can easily list hundreds or thousands of different items with the same description template. With description templates, ChannelAdvisor complete allows you to easily keep a consistent appearance to all of your listings. This will save you time and help you establish a brand and identity in the marketplace.

Select Your Schedule

Schedules can help you increase sales while saving significant time. Schedules allow you to determine when, how often, and how many items are posted to eBay at a give time. When you create a schedule in the application, you are creating a schedule that can be used an unlimited number of times for an unlimited number of items and not just determining when a single item will post. You can be flexible in the configured quantity, as the schedule will never post more quantity than you have available at the time of the listing – it will submit the maximum quantity in the inventory item subject to the constraints of your schedule.

Create Your Ads

Once you have created all of the components that make up an eBay add including the Posting Template, Description Template, and the Schedule, you can move forward and begin creating the ads that will be listed on the eBay Marketplace. You can create your ads one-by-one via the user interface or you can create your ads in bulk via spreadsheet.

Manage Your Listings

Once you have created your eBay ads, you should begin seeing activity almost immediately. You may notice that some of your products have not listed properly or have not listed at all. It will be crucial that you consistently manage your eBay account to monitor these issues.

eBay Product Dashboard

ChannelAdvisor provides you with a dashboard that assists you with the management of your eBay ads. eBay 360 is a comprehensive feature that goes beyond the traditional integration of product data and gives retailers the freedom to shift their attention from e-commerce mechanics to e-commerce strategy. eBay 360 is fully compatible with all supported eBay sites and countries. You can access this page via the menu from Marketplaces > eBay > Products > Overview.

eBay Ad Management

There are several views and actions in ChannelAdvisor that will allow you to effectively manage your eBay ads according to your business practices and strategies. You will want to be familiar with all of these features in your account.

Fulfilling/Cancelling Orders

Sales are handled through the integrated shopping cart of each Marketplace. Order information details are then imported to ChannelAdvisor in the All Sales view where you can then manage your fulfillment process, update shipping and tracking information and process any refunds or cancellations.

Importing Orders

From your All Sales view you can easily manage the fulfillment process for all orders imported from the marketplace. Whether you use ChannelAdvisor or a third party fulfillment system to manage your orders, ChannelAdvisor offers the tools to optimize your fulfillment strategy.

After a purchase has been completed, the ChannelAdvisor Complete software will automatically import all the relevant order details needed for fulfillment. See the Processing and Communication Frequency page for details on how long after a purchase orders are imported. For information about Order IDs and expected ID formats, please review the Order Import Processing section on the eBay Settings SSC page.

Once imported, your orders will appear in the Sales > Orders/Transactions > All Orders view alongside all of your other orders.

Update Shipping and Tracking

After fulfillment is complete, your next step is to update the ChannelAdvisor Complete software with shipping and tracking information. This step is what will update the order status to shipped and notify the customer that the item has been fulfilled. Once processed, eBay will be automatically updated with the fulfillment information . There are 4 primary methods to complete this step.

Refunding Orders

Currently, only refunds for payments using the PayPal payment method are supported in ChannelAdvisor which is why as a best practice ChannelAdvisor only recommends accepting PayPal payments. If you are also accepting Integrated Merchant Credit Card payments or Offline Manual Payments those refunds will have to be processed manually outside of ChannelAdvisor. Below are instructions to process your eBay refunds.